


Many lives, many deaths

by i_cant_come_up_with_usernames



Category: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead - Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990) RPF
Genre: RAGAD, Reincarnation, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:09:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29790360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_cant_come_up_with_usernames/pseuds/i_cant_come_up_with_usernames
Summary: Reincarnation.Some people are bound together, meant to co-exist.





	1. Beginning

Some people are meant to find each other.

In any life.

In any body.

And sometimes- only ever so often- souls are bound.

They will find each other every time. Every life. Every body.

This is the story of two such people.

\---

"Now you don't." His first words. His parents are surprised, sure, but they don't say anything. They don't want to arouse suspicion. So they move on with their lives, and eventually he goes to school.

School, you understand, has other children there. This time around, Guildenstern has no siblings and no friends. So he hasn't yet learned about the plague: Cooties. So when he sees a girl spinning endlessly in the soccer field at recess, he goes up with no hesitation.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

The girl doesn't pause. "Spinning and laying down so I can feel the earth move. You can join me if you'd like." And so he does. He spins and spins and spins until the girl grabs his arm, dragging him onto the dirt. He closes his eyes, and feels what the girl had said. The earth was moving.

"We're not supposed to be able to feel it, did you know that? That's why people thought the sun went around the earth."

"They were wrong though."

"Yeah."

"So how do you know you're not wrong? About not being able to feel the rotation?"

Guildenstern doesn't like that idea. He turns to tell her this, and they make eye contact for the first time.

They both freeze, images dancing in their heads. Images of a prince, of a summons, of not knowing their names, of crude actors.

Of spinning coins.

"Heads." They say at the same time.

It is a tragedy. A one-in-a-million chance. School buses don't crash very often, but when they do...

They die at the same time.


	2. Chapter 2

But it's not always a tragedy. Sometimes it's a peaceful life.

This time they meet in their 30s. They're accountants. They've always had a way with money.

It's Rosencrantz's first day. He finally got his dream job, after years of hard work. He's shown around and then settles down to his brand new desk. He immediately starts putting things on it, little trinkets, even a small aloe vera. Weeks pass, and he makes many friends. He's always been good at that. One day, he decides to come to the office early. 5:00 am. He couldn't sleep, so he decided to head in. As the first streams of light made their way through the windows, he sees another person come in. The person looks at him in surprise, and approaches, cautious.

Their eyes meet.

Rosencrantz passes out. This body doesn't have a strong constitution, and the sudden influx on his sleep-deprived brain? He wakes up hours later to Guildenstern watering the break room's plants. "Oh good, you're awake. I was worried there for a second," he jokes.

This makes Rosencrantz want to cry.

"Hey, hey, are you okay? You're safe, I promise. It's a good thing I come in when I do. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here yet, no one ever is. Have any idea why you conked out?"

"Uh... yeah. I think I do know. Do you?"

"Yeah. That was weird.”

“Just a little.”

“Do you know what it meant? Why it happened? There must be a good explanation for it, there always is. Things happen for a reason.”

“Well, I should probably head home.” He starts to leave.

“Wait,” Guildenstern says.

“What?”

“Do you want to go out for coffee tomorrow?”

Rosencrantz smiles. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

And that coffee leads to another coffee, which leads to another coffee, which leads to a birthday party, which leads to a lifelong friendship. They even go to the same nursing home, and though their memory isn’t what it used to be, they know they have each other.

Needless to say, they die at the same time.

\---

Rosencrantz has always been a performer, of sorts.

She reads aloud in class every chance, and when she finds out about acting? She knows that’s what she wants to do.

Guildenstern, on the other hand, is taking the theater course because she has to take an art class of some sort, painting is out of the question, and in elementary school, she couldn’t even play the recorder.

They walk into class and are immediately told to close their eyes.

The Player doesn’t show up in all of their lives. He’s a strange figure, lurking where needed. More of a prop than a character, but he does his best.

They have to read scenes back-to-back in front of the class. Something about ‘building rapport before seeing each other’ their teacher says. But the teacher knows Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He can see what he has done in past lives, and although he might not have been their friend, he knows they need to be together.

So that’s how Guildenstern finds herself reading a love scene with someone she’s never seen before.

They’ve been instructed to turn to face their partner after they finish the scene, and when Rosencrantz dramatically finishes her last line-

This is the first time she has ever run out of a classroom. In any life.

Guildenstern follows her, of course. She’s always liked routine, and she knows that Rosencrantz is routine.

“Are you okay?”

“No. Especially because I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.”

“I’m not very good at comforting people, so I’m just going to talk at you if that’s okay?”

She nods.

“Well. Uh, you did good with the scene. I saw it in the show once, and you did better. Though maybe that’s just the dopamine from seeing you. Not in a weird way! It’s just that knowing I’ve loved you before makes me happy. Not that we have to be friends. I- I collect coins. Always have had a certain affinity for them. I guess I know why now. Feels weird to think I’ve been dead before. Death should be nothing, but if what I felt was true, it can’t be because I’ve come back. I wonder what happened in our past lives. I feel like it’s unfair that I know now that we’ve been together before but I don’t know what happened. Just glimpses. Oh no, do you think after we die it’ll just happen again? What will happen if we don’t regenerate or find each other-”

“Touch.” Rosencrantz grabs her hand. “We’ll be okay. I promise.”

“This feels oddly familiar.”

She chuckles. “I think we’ve passed that point. Though we don’t have a say in our next life, we do have a say in this one. So. Would you like to go out with me?”

She smiles. “I’d like that very much.”


End file.
